Quick-release harness construction



Mai'ch 27, 1945. R. E. DOWD I QUICK-RELEASE HARNESS CONSTRUCTION FiledMarc 2h 18, 1942 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 0708/71 0 ad 5 Dana March 27, 1945. E.D OWD QUICK-RELEASE HARNESS CONSTRUCTION Filed March 18, 1942 4Sheets-Sheet 2:

March 27, 1945., R. E. DOWD 2,372,557

QUICK-RELEASE HARNESS CONSTRUCTION Filed March 18, 1942 4 Sheets-SheetI5 March 27, 1945. R. E. Dowb QUICK-RELEASE HARNESS CONSTRUCTION FiledMarchvl8, 1942 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 hue/7Z0 fizymnd E Dowd Patented Mar.27,? 1945 UNETED STATES PATENT OFFICE QUICK-RELEASE HARNESS CONSTRUCTIONRaymond E. Dowd, Chicago, 11!. Application March 18, 1942, Serial No.435,13'7' v 7 Claims. (creel-'15s) This invention relates toimprovements in quick-release harness constructions.

One object of this invention i to provide an improved quick-releaseharness construction for acrobatic flying safety harnesses. v v vAnother object or this invention is to provide an. improvedquick-release harness construction characterized by simplicity and anobvious mode of operation for applicatiomadjustment and release oi theharness.

an improved quick-release harness construction which can be quickly.released by a sinelemovement of a lever of the mainor waist-buckle orthe harness with consequent immediate disconnection or release of themain and auxiliary it Another object of this-invention is toprovidestrap or. the like that may form part of the harness.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved quick-releaseharness construction including waist? and shoulder-strap members inwhich shoulder-buckles are employed in conjuncan improved quick-releasemainor'wa st-buckle.

formingpart of the foregoing release harness construction; 1

Another object of this invention is toprovide .an' improvedquick-release buckle formed of simple elements, readily manufactured andreadily improved quickassembled to produce an efllclent, durable con-v'struct'icn at minimum cost.

. With the above and other objects ln-view, as

appear to those skilled in the art from thepresent disclosure, thisinvention includes all features in the said disclosure which arenovelover the prior art.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of the present disclosure, inwhich certain ways of carrying out the invention are shown forillustmflv purposes:

191:. 1 i a perspective view ofv a quick-release harness oonstructlonmadin accordance with the present invention;

P18, 2 ls'a trcntieievation or the main or waist.- buckle' shown inl'lg.1, together with fragmental portions otthehamess:

Fig. 3 is a sectional View talzen on the line 3-4 were. 2; r

Fig. 4 is a sectional view'taken on line d-fi Fig. 5 is a sectional viewsimilar to Fig. 4 but with the parts in unlocked, open position;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the locking-lever of the main buckle;

lar to Fig. 2 of another modified construction differing principallyfrom the corresponding construction shown in Fig. 2 by having adifierent form of locking-lever;

Fis. 13'is a sectional view on line i3-l3 of Fig. 12;

Fig. 14 is a top plan view of a modified tonguemember having a pivotedlocking-stud;

' 'its limited pivotal movement;

I buckle: and

Fig. 15 is a sectional view on line 15-45 of F 4;

Fig, 16 is a View similar to Fig. 15 with the locking-stud swung upabout its pivot to illustrat Fig. 17 is a front elevation of a modifiedform of auxiliary-strap terminal for connecting an auxiliary- 0rshoulder-strap to the malnor waist- Flg. 18 is a side elevation of Fig.17. I

In the description and claims, the various parts are identified byspecific names for convenience,- but they are intended to be as genericin their 7 application as the prior art will permit. In carrying out theinvention in the form illustrated in Figs. Ito '7 of the drawings, aquickrelease acrobatic flying afety harness ll includes mainorwaist-strap means 2| with a mainor waist buckle 22 and auxiliaryorshoulder-strap means 23 which includes two shoulder-strap 2i and tworear anchor-straps 25. v

The main- ,or waist-mckle 22 includes a chan! no! 01' U-shaped tongue orbar 2 pivoted at 21 to an elongated frame 28 having an elongated opening29. ,The frame II has upper and lower U-shaped portions 3. and II at itsopposite ends. with their openings directed oppositely to the opening ofthe tongue 20. The opposite sides I;

of the frame 28 are of fluted form, as shown, to increase the rigidityof the frame. A lockingstud 33 is riveted at 34 to the tongue 28 and isprovided with a slot 35 across which extends a rivet or pin 36 on whichmay be rotatably mounted an antifriction roller 31. A locking-lever 38has its ears 39 and 40 respectively pivoted to the ears 4| and 42 of theframe 28 by means of rivets or pins 43. The locking-lever 38 has alockingfinger 44 adapted to pass through the slot 35 and have lockingengagement with the roller 37 when the locking-lever is swung to thelocked position shown in Figs. 3 and 4, in which position thedetent-projection 45 of the ear 4! is adapted to yieldingly engage inthe detent-opening 48 of the ear 35 to yieldinglyhold the locking-lever38 in its locked position.

Although the rounded end of the locking-finger 44 of the main-buckle 22can have a camming action on the roller 31 when the locking-lever 38 isbeing swung to locked position, the shape and position of the lockingparts is such that any stress which occurs in use which tends to swingthe frame to open position, is effectively resisted by the pressure ofthe roller 3? against the concaved surface of the locking-finger 4d.

The locking-stud 33 is of sumcient length to have room near its base tofreely receive and anchor eye-terminals di 'or the auxiliaryorshoulder-straps 23 without interfering with the frame 28 being swungfrom its unlocked position of Fig. to its closed or locked positionshown in 'Fig. 4.

The mainor waist strap means 26 comprises two strap-portions it and S9.The strap-portion 88 has one of its ends looped at 56! around the tongueor bar 2% (Fig, 3), The other end of the strap-portion to may extenddownwardly and be anchored to any suitable location as is usual in thecase of flying harnesses. The strap-portionit is passed up through thestrap-passage 5! over the trunk of a person, thus aiding in preventing asudden forward thrust of the lower portion of the body or a suddenupward movement of the thighs or lower portionof the trunk duringsudtion of the trunk. There are times, however,

the top of the tongue 26 and then downwardly through the strap-passage52, the left end of the strap-portion 39 being suitably anchored similarto the way described concerning strap-portion 48. It will beappreciated, however, that for some purposes the strap-portions 68 andas may, forexample, form part of one strap which extends continuouslyaround a person's waist in th usual manner of a waist belt.

Both of the shoulder-straps 24 can be identical and therefore it willonly be necessary to describe one of them. Each shoulder-strap 24 has alever-release buckle 53 of the form shown in Patent No. 2,191,228,granted to Dowd, one end of a strap 24 being secured to'the buckle andthen passing upwardly through the slot 54 of the eye-terminal 41 andthen along through the buckle 53 and upwardly and over the shoulder anddownwardly to where it joins with the other strap-portion 24 to a commonstrap-portion 55 which may be anchored at any downward location, as isusual and well known."

Mounted upon each shoulder-strap 24 is a three-bar or double-slot buckle56 through which also extends over the top of the strap 24, one of therear anchor-straps 25 which extends back rearwardlywhere it joins theother corresponding rear anchor-strap 25 in an anchor-member 51 whichmay be anchored in any suitable location rearward of the shoulders ofthe person who is to wear the harness.

In the form of the invention illustrated in Fig. l, the strap-portions48 and 49 may extend downwardly across the portions of the thighsadjacent when it is desirable that the aviator or other person wearingthe harness shall be free to lean forward for special purposes such, forexample, as adjusting an instrument. In order to accomplish this,anelastic-member 58 is interconnected between each two buckles 53, 56.Normally, these elastic-members which may be of elastic rubber or othersuitable spring-like means, perform no function since the two buckles 53and 55 are lockedon the shoulder-straps 24 as shown in Fig. 1. But whenthe person wearing the harness desires to free himself to move forward,he throws up the release-levers 59 of the shoulder-strap release-buckles53 and moves forward, with the consequence that the strain on theshoulderstraps 2 3 causes the buckles 53 to be pulled downward on thestraps 2% against the elastic action of the elastic-members 58. As theperson moves back to normal upright position, the elasticmembers 58 pullthe buckles 53 back upwardly to their original positions, whereupon thelocking levers 59 of the buckles 53 are swung to the looking positionshown in Fig. l, by the person wearing the harness.

Should any emergency arise in which the person wearing the harnessdesires to release himself quickly, he merely grasps the lever 38 of thewaist-buckle 22 and throws the lever 38 from its position illustrated inFigs. 1 and 3 over to the broken line position shown inFig. 3, whereuponthe locking-finger 54 passes out of the lockingslot 35 of thelocking-stud 33, and the strap-portion 49 and the eye-connectors orterminals 17, inasmuch as they are normally exerting stress against theframe 28, cause the latter to be swun outward to some position such asillustrated in Fig. 5, thus releasing the strap-portion 49 andpermitting the eye-terminals 4-1 of the shoulder-v straps to be pulledoff or to move off the end of the stud 33, thus freeing the personfromthe harness. 1

In the form of the invention illustrated in Figs. 8 to 11, a modifiedform of buckle 22a is the same as the form or buckle 22 illustrated inFigs. 1 to '7 except that instead of relying uporf the lockingstud 33afor. attaching the shoulder-strap eyeterminals 41, two specialanchor-pins 33b are the person's legs and be anchored suitably-atoppositely-spaced locations beneath the legs.

Although the form of strap or strap-portions illustrated in connectionwith the construction shown in Figs. 1 to '7 could be equally wellemployed in the'construction illustrated in Figs. 8

to 11, a diflerent form-of strap construction has place aboard ship orplanes or holding freight been illustrated to illustrate another mode ofuse, namely, having two tree-end strap-portions lid and 49a passedoppositely through the strap:

passages Bla and 52a between the tongue 28a and the frame 28a, theanchoring action being 'in the nature oi a snubbing action on bothstrapportlons 48a and 49a. While the preferable way of securing free-endwaist-strap portions in the mainor waist-buckle is to pass them throughthe strap-passages at opposite sides or the buckletnngue while thebuckle is in closed condition, the tree-end strap-portions can be passedacross the space (Fig. between the buckle-frame and tongue before theframe is swung to closed position. The release or the buckle 22a iaccomplished by throwing the lever 38a about its pivot in the samemanner as described concerning the tom of the invention illustrated inFigs. 1 to 7. whereupon the strap-portions 48a, 49a and theshoulder-strap terminals 41 will bepromptly released from their,connection with the buckle 22a. the lower strap 66 remaining connectedwith the buckle 22a by means of the slot-connection 65.

A still further modified form of buckle con- I struction is illustratedin Figs. 12 and 13 in which a buckle-frame 22b has a locking-lever38bghaving an ear 40b pivoted at 43b to an ear 4217 on the frame 28b,the mode of locking and securing strap-elements or portions being thesame as described concerning the construction illustrated inFlgs.1to'I.

Figs. 14 to 16 illustrate a modified form of lockins-stud 330 which,instead of being rigidly connected to the tongue 260, is pivoted theretoby a pivot-pin 61 riveted in the side walls 58 of the channel-shapedtongue 260 to facilitate the au- "tomatic removal of the shoulder-strapterminals 11 oil of the holding-pin or pins by the terminals pulling thestud 33c upward to a slight angle, as illustrated in Fig. 16, therebyfacilitat ng the sliding oil of the eye-terminals d1 of theshoultier-straps. The stud 830 is shown in the draw ings as beingreturned to its normal position at right angles to the bottom wall 69 ofthe tongue 280 by means of a leaf-spring l0 riveted to the bottom wall89 of the tongue 280, although it wll be appreciated that this return toposition could be accomplished in any suitable way, as for example,bygravity acting on the stud 330. This form of tiltable stud 330 couldbe employed in the place of any of the studs heretofore illustrated onwhich it may be desired to anchor shoulderstrap eye-terminals or thelike.

Instead of having the shoulder-strap eye-terminals each made of asingle/ integral piece of metal, as shown in- Figs. 4 and 5, suchterminals mayconsist of a main body-member I I (Figs. 17

and 18) provided with a strap-slot "I2 and having -an anchoreye-portion- 13 hinged at 14, which thus makes it unnecessary to provideany angular.

' departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of theinvention, and the present. em-

bcdiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects asfllustrative and not restrictive, and allchanges coming within themeaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to beembraced therein. 1

I claim:

1. A quick-release harness. construction comprising: a buckle includinga tongue, a frame having one end pivoted to one end or said tongue andhaving an opening, and being adapted to be swung to and from a closedposition in which said tongue extends across said opening and in spacedrelation to the sides of said frame at opposite sides of said tongue toprovide strap-passages between said tongue and sides, said frame andtongue having cooperating engaging-means adapted to detachably holdauxiliary strap-means when said frame is in closed position; strapmeansincluding a first main strap-portion constructed andjarranged to beattached to said tongue and have a portion extend through one oi'saidstrap-passages and past one or said sides. and a second mainstrap-portion constructed and arranged to have a portion extend pastsaid one side between said one side and said first main strap-portionand through said one strap-passage and over said tongue and through theother of said strap-passages. such that when said two mainstrap-portions are pulled in opposite directions, said first mainstrap-portion presses said second main strap-portion against said oneside, and at least one of which main strap-portions isreleasable whensaid frame is swung away from said closed position, said strap-meansalso including auxiliary strap-means adapted to be held by saidengaging-means when said frame is in closed position, and releasablewhen said frame is swung away from said closed position; and releasablelocking-means adapted to lock said ,frame and tongue in said closedposition.

2. A' quick-release harness construction comprising: a buckle includinga tongue, a frame having one end pivoted to one end of said tongue andhaving an opening, and being adapted to be swung to and from a closedposition in which said tongue extends across said opening and in spacedrelation to the sides of said frame at opposite sides of said tongue toprovide strap-passages between said tongue and sides, said frame andtongue having cooperating pin-and-hole engaging-means adapted todetachably hold auxil- 1 iary strap-means when said frame is in closedrelationship between the anchoring eye-portion and the mainbody-portion.

, straps or other auxiliary-strap means, if so desired.

Itwill be appreciated that the hereinbefore de-,

scribed buckles and harness can be used by observers and gunners andother on' planes as well so forth,'and can also be used for holdingemergency equipment such as holding life rafts in position; .strap-meansincluding 8. st main strap-portion constructed-and arranged t b ttachedto said tongue and have a portion extend through one or saidstrap-passages and pastone of said sides,- and a second mainstrap-portion constructed and arranged, to have a portion err-- tendpast said one side-between said one side and said first mainstrap-portion vand through said one strap-passage and over said tongueand as by aviators, and also can be used elsewhere as, for example, inarmored military equipment and through the other oisaid strap-passages,such that when said two main strap-portions are pulled in oppositedirections, said first main strap-portion presses said second mainstrap-portion against said one side, and at least one or hich mainstrap-portions is releasable when said rame is swung away from saidclosed position, said strap-means also including auxiliary strap-meansing-means when said frame is in closed position,

and releasable when said frame is swung away from said closed position;and releasable locking-means adapted to lock said frame and tongue insaid closed position.

3. A quick-release harness construction comprising: a buckle including atongue, a frame having one end pivoted to one end of said tongue andhaving an opening, and being adapted to be swung to and from a closedposition in which said tongue extends across said opening and in spacedrelation to the sides of said frame at opposite sides of said tongue toprovide strap-passages between said tongue and sides, said frame andtongue having cooperating engaging-means adapted to detachably holdauxiliary strapmeanswhen said frame is in closed position; strap-anchormeans at the pivot end of said buckle; strap-means including a firstmain strapportion constructed and arranged to be attached to said tongueand have a portion extend through one of said strap-passages and pastone of said sides, and a second main strap-portion constructed andarranged to have a portion extend past said one side between said oneside and said first main strap-portion and through said onestrap-passage and over said tongue and through the other of saidstrap-passages, such that when said two main strap-portions are pulledin opposite directions, said first main strap-portion presses saidsecond main'strap-portion against said one side, and at least one ofwhich main strap=portions is releasable when said frame is swung awayfrom said closed position, said strapmeans also including auxiliarystrap-means adapted to be held by said engaging-means when said frame isin closed position, and. releasable when said frame is swung away fromsaid closed position, and said strap-=1neans also including otherauxiliary strap-means adapted to be held by said strap-anchor means; andreleasable locking-ineans adapted to lock said frame'and tongue in saidclosed position.

4. A quick-release harness construction comprising: strap-meansincluding waist-strap means and a number ofshoulder-straps; awaist-buckle for said waist-strap means; a shoulder-buckle attached toone end of each said shoulder-strap and releasably securable at variouspositions along such shoulder-strap to provide a loop. of adjustablelength attachable to saidwaist-buckle; and elongated elastic meanshaving one end attached to said shoulder-buckle and the opposite endattached to said shoulder-strap to permit said shoulder-buckle when inreleased condition, to he slid along said shoulder-strap and elongatesaid elastic means, said elongated elastic means being adapted toretrieve said shoulder-buckle.

5. A quick-release harness construction comprising: strap-meansincluding waist-strap means and a number of shoulder-straps; awaist-buckle for said waist-strap means;. a shoulder-buckle attached toone end of each said shoulder-strap and releasably securable at variouspositions along such shoulder-strap to provide a loop of adjustablelength attachable to said waist-buckle; and elongated elastic meanshaving one end attached to said shoLlder-buckle and the opposite endattached to said shoulder-strap to permit said shoulder-buckle when inreleased condition, to he slid along said shoulder-strap and elongatesaid elastic means, said elongated elastic means being adapted toretrieve said shoulder-buckle, said shoulder-buckle being located belowthe said place of attachment of said elastic means to saidshoulder-strap.

6. A quick-release buckle comprising: a tongue; a frame having one endpivoted to one end of said tongue and having an opening, and beingadapted to-be swung to and from a closed position in which said tongueextends across said opening and in spaced relation to the sides of saidframe ed on the end of said frame opposite the said pivoted end of saidframe and at the face of said frame which is most distant from saidtongue when said frame is in open position, the axis of the pivot ofsaid lever being approximately parallel to the general longitudinal axiof said tongue when said tongue and frame are in closed position.

7. n-qidck-release buckle comprising: a tongue; a frame having one endpivoted to one end of said tongue and having an opening, and beingadapted to be swung to and from a closed position in which said tongueextends across said opening and in spaced relation to the sides of saidframe at opposite sides of said tongue to provide strappassages betweensaid tongue and sides; and releasable locking-means adapted to lock saidframe and tongue insaid closed position; said locking-' means includingcooperating pin-and-hole engaging-parts, one part on the tongue and theother part on the frame, and a locking-device adapted to releasablyengage said'pin, said pin being directly pivotally mounted to havelimited swinging c movement.

' RAYMOND E. DOWD.

